


The Water Tribe Princess

by theLiterator



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen, M/M, haibun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-06
Updated: 2015-01-06
Packaged: 2018-03-06 09:29:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3129545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theLiterator/pseuds/theLiterator
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being a biography by Meili.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Water Tribe Princess

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Traxits](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Traxits/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Silk](https://archiveofourown.org/works/718546) by [Traxits](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Traxits/pseuds/Traxits). 



> So recently, in Silk, Sokka has been lamenting the themes of most of the Fire Nation novels he's been given to read. While Traxits was talking about my OC (Meili, now a fixture in the fic, oops,) from my fic Princess, she mentioned, off-hand, that Meili would probably write the most famous version of the Sokka/Zuko romance.
> 
> She's still not sure whether history will remember Sokka as a warrior or as a princess, but I picked warrior and wrote this.
> 
> It's a haibun, so sorry for the... well. Everything.

> where sea and sky touch  
> and breath kisses solid breath  
> the tide is ebbing

The exiled Fire Prince tests his feet upon uncertain ice, and finds it cracked but unyielding. He looks at the skin huts of the Water Tribe, and the children watching with wide-eyed terror, and almost turns away. 

There are no warriors here.

But the Water Tribe Princess whispers his name with the chill of a thousand dead soldiers, and he walks forward and finds.

> the ice creeps deeper  
> cracking loud when blood touches  
> brave souls as they stand

One Bender stands proud. Her hair is braided as a woman’s, but her stance is as a maiden’s, and beside her, firm and flinching, young and unyielding as the ice under his feet, is the last of the Water Tribe Warriors, and the Princess whispers another name.

There are no warriors here.

“I seek to build an army,” the Fire Prince says, kneeling to the Princess and to her Warrior and her Bender. Kneeling to the untried Bender and her brother. The ice is silent for one breath, three, and then the Fire Prince’s warriors converge. Attack. Steal.

> heat of fury-bright  
> cannot burn without sinking  
> below ebbing tide

All know this: you cannot hold a Waterbender at sea. All know this: you cannot take a warrior from his liege.

The Fire Prince offers the Water Tribe Princess gifts of gold and bolted silk. Her Warrior bows his head and accepts, accepts. The Fire Prince offers the Warrior swords and strategy, and the Warrior accepts, learns.

Silk and gold will not win loyalty. Silk and gold cannot win a war.

> fire calls fire, wood burns  
> silk, gold, swords and strategy  
> smoke in deepest night

The War Commander faces the Fire Prince and smiles at him, and sees only the Water Tribe Princess, not her liegeman. They dance, and the Fire Prince flinches, for he knows the lick of flames. He fears the lick of flames. The Water Tribe Princess stands proud, and the Warrior walks away, leaving swords but keeping strategy.

They see only the Water Tribe Princess, and the Warrior courts them, rising like the tide, smiling his Princess’s smile, and among the new gifts of chains and shrouds, he finds a dagger in the dark, to cut, to kill.

Silk and gold will not win loyalty. Only loyalty can win a war.

> tides rise, men tremble  
> quenching heat and flame of war  
> cleansing princes’ hearts

Loyalty draws the Fire Prince to the War Commander’s prison-palace, and he does not see the Water Tribe Princess. He does not care. He brings abandoned swords and flames to guide them, and the Warrior does not flinch from lick of flames. The Fire Prince stands firm, and ice creeps beneath his feet.

The Warrior smiles, and rewards loyalty with loyalty. Swords and flames dance entwined, and men fall; the Fire Prince returns to the sea.

> warm breath touches breath  
> golden chains and silk shrouds part  
> beneath foxfire stars

The Water Tribe Princess whispers her last words; “You shall build your army,” and the Warrior sighs and smiles a Warrior’s smile. The Fire Prince touches skin and clutches silk, until there is only loyalty between them.

The army comes, slow as a rising tide, and with it war, but loyalty can win a war.


End file.
